So tired of hearing people complain that they don't have ideas, or money to start a business.

Here's a business idea you're welcome to to steal, one that can be pursued with nothing but a few phone calls.

In other words, you can find your customers before spending a dime on business costs. So the risk is completely removed.

Here's the business...

I was just thinking that I love entrepreneurship so much (and running my own show) that I could own a business scrubbing toilets and mopping floors soaked in urine. And I'd be perfectly happy with it.

Offer a service to clean public bathrooms in stores, restaurants, and other public locales, like Home Depot. Every restaurant bathroom I visit is usually filthy; there's clearly a need which is not being solved by internal employees or management.

Management gets a clean bathroom and can focus on critical business operations.
You get a business with low labor costs.

Start cleaning yourself and devise the systems and processes while you learn the ropes and operational efficiencies, then hire labor to scale.

Good idea? Maybe, maybe not.

The thing is, it will cost you nothing to find out, other some grindstone work selling to business owners with public locations.

A harsh message that some won't want to hear, but...

If you're waiting for someone to tell you EXACTLY what to do in starting a business, please STOP fooling yourself.

You're don't have the grit to be an entrepreneur, you have the mental makeup of an employee where you will get exactly what you wanted: A boss who will tell you exactly what to do...

Time waits for no one. After 6 years, people are still "waiting" for their big break in while others have already changed their lives—no hope, no pray, no waiting.

Please don't waste another 6 years.

https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/community/threads/time-waits-for-no-one-including-your-crypto-investments.111412/

If you read Unscripted, you can instantly see through BS like this... a $15 book will likely save you $1000s of dollars and much more heartache...

The ad leverages 5 of the 8 cognitive scams I expose...

The Money Scam
The Shortcut Scam
The Consumption Scam
The Event Scam
The Special Scam

There is no secret formula to wealth and expecting to find it an "Instant Training" is quite possibly the most laughable thing I've seen this year.

CLOWN WORLD, PART II: What is this trend of 20 year olds with no life experience coaching other 20 year olds with no life experience on how to be coaches?

In the 90s, we called it the Envelope Stuffing Scam where you taught others to repeat the grift, with no real value created.

I wish I saw these charts 30 years ago...

You don't want to miss this week's newsletter.

https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/364132/107473832993883815

Poor decision making and life choices are often the result of poor premises, incorrect information, or untamed biases. Often these are given to you by your culture, family, or media.

If you believe X and X is incorrect or based on a false belief, your decisions based on X will also be incorrect.

In the end, you live a lie. Opportunity, missed.

Examples: "Starting a business is risky" or "You get rich investing in the stock market"

So, holding a job with a corporation who can FIRE you at any moment, for any reason, is NOT risky?

You let the whims of the stock market dictate your entire financial life? That isn't risky?

Astounding.

Every year is a new chance to evaluate your goals.

As a teenager, I had the goal for courtside seats at Chicago Bulls games, next to Michael Jordan. By the time I hit my twenties, this goal disappeared. As I built a better life for myself, the soap-operas of pro sports was no longer worth my time or the mental bandwidth.

As a rule, continuously evaluate your goals that extend beyond one year: As you grow and chisel yourself into a newer you, your goals and values change. There's no failure in dropping a goal that you no longer value.

Build a NEW you, and the goals of OLD you might disappear.

Wishing everyone happy holidays!

I'd like to reiterate that social media is a TOOL.

A thread on the forum advocates deleting social media.

My agreement depends on how the tool is used.

You can use social media to hammer you over the head and make you stupid.
Or you can use it to hammer you a better life and a better business.

At the end of last year I've been having some hip problems which I am 99% sure is due to too much sitting; it dropped me to Healthcon4. This particular issue only flared up during my sleep so I was started to sleep poorly due to hip pain.

I spent nearly $1K on a chiropractor who did nothing to fix the problem.
I spent more $$ on massage.
I stretched daily the area.

Nothing really changed.

My wife started following a bunch of exercise physiologists, kiniseologists ,and physical therapists on IG. She sent me a bunch of stretching exercises as recommended by these people. I started doing the stretches 5-6X a week. Within one week, the problem was reduced in severity.

Today, the pain is virtually gone and I can once again, get a good nights rest. HealthCon5.

And the exercises exposed some really interesting mechanics in my body that likely have been caused by YEARS of sitting in a chair during work hours.

Social media solved these problems for me. And for FREE. Or I could have spent countless hours and dollars trying to find someone to help me, which was already proving fruitless.

Social media improved my health.

It didn't destroy it.

You decide how to use the tool.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions are for losers.

I haven't had one in decades.

Here's why.

If you're making New Year's Resolutions, it tells me that you don't have a habit of making goals, but only once a year, at the end of December or the beginning of January. 😔

We're already one week into the New Year. Have your goals already started to crack through the seams of life?

I make goals every week of the year—not just January 2nd. Not only do I set goals often, but I also have a STRATEGY and a SYSTEM for achieving them.

Both are needed to succeed.

🎯THE STRATEGY
If you read The Great Rat Race Escape, my 1/5/10 Planasy is my strategy to achieve goals. If you aren't familiar with this strategy, it is based on the goal-setting concept of Backwardation.

Backwardation is visualizing your end goal—selling a Fastlane business for $10M— and reverse-engineering that goal into shorter, segmented goals, narrowed down to the week and the day.

Backwardation is a phenomenally effective concept that has stood the test of time. The most timeless application is in Stephen Covey's work, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, where Habit #2 is "Starting with the End in Mind."

Without Backwardation and a strategy for achievement, New Year's Resolutions are mere fantasies—or, as I like to preach, "A fantastic goal without a fantastic plan is a fantastic fantasy."

🎯THE SYSTEM
One of James Clear's most profound pieces of wisdom in Atomic Habits was, "You do not rise to the level of your goals, but you rise to the level of your systems."

I used a simple pen-and-paper system for decades to plot my Backwardation plan. I futilely tried moving my backwardation strategy to online tools like Notion, Clickup, or MS To Do. It resulted in failure every time as I found these tools bulky, complex, and not "big-picture" focused. I'd always revert back to pen and paper.

As such, last year, I cofounded GoalSumo.com to solve my own problem, or, as they say, to scratch my own itch. I also added in a mentorship, knowledge acquisition, and Kaizen angle as well, a function that other task systems do not have.

I'm happy to say this powerful system has officially replaced my trusty 1/5/10 paper planner. I can say unequivocally that this system has leveled-up my life, with the most notable improvements in my physical fitness.

I use this system daily to set, plan, and achieve goals.

I would use it even if I wasn't associated with it.

If you want to level up your life and make 2024 the year everything changes, I invite you to start using Backwardation for your goals.

1️⃣ Set an ambitious goal
2️⃣ Segment it into smaller, bit-sized goals. Years, months, weeks, day.
3️⃣ Task and habit it to your day.

You can do this at GoalSumo easily, or you can download my free planner. Or write it down in your own journal.

You are the CEO of your life/

Back in the mid-90s, I spent 20 minutes visualizing my future and penned it down in a journal. Years later, I stumbled upon that old visualization in a dusty crate while moving to a new home. EVERYTHING I WROTE DOWN, I ACHEIVED, thanks to Backwardation.

You can read the story listed below.

Win the day. Win the week. And you'll win the year, followed by life.
Cheers, MJ

⚡RESOURCES
▶️ My FREE 1/5/10 Planner: Put Backwardation into Immediate Use.
▶️ My personal Backwardation success story.
▶️ GoalSumo Backwardation Tutorial.
▶️ Get a Free GoalSumo Trial; We have 25 "WIN-2024" subscription discount vouchers; as of now there are 19 left.

PS: If you tried GoalSumo months ago, I invite you to check it out it again as it was totally redone and improved in accordance to my specifications and use model. I stand behind what I personally use.

PS2: The crazy picture of me is after suffering through oral surgery, thanks to GoalSumo, I put on some muscle! 💪💪

The most important business pivot is the one you make before starting.

Direct from the Fastlane Newsletter (in case you missed it!)

https://www.mjdemarco.com/pivoting-in-business-pivot-before-starting/

Have a spectacular weekend everyone!
MJ

Want to get wealthy where budgets are no longer part of your vocabulary?

80/20 applies.

The 80 is a business. The 20 are your investments.

In other words, your controllable business generates massive wealth— not bitcoin or stocks.

Your uncontrollable stocks, crypto and bitcoin are mere investments, some more speculative than others, that can help grow your idle cash while you build massive wealth in your business.

Those who focus on the 20 do not get rich, only less poor.

Focus on what matters; that is a business that you can scale.